I am a DPhil student in International Relations at Balliol College, University of Oxford. I hold an MPhil in International Relations from Pembroke College, Oxford, and a BA in International Relations (Phi Beta Kappa) from Tufts University, where I also minored in French language, history, and culture.
Whilst I previously focused on US foreign policy towards the People’s Republic of China during the Reagan administration, my project now seeks to develop a theory of world orders under the predominance of strongman-style leaders. I argue that when multiple major powers are led by political actors who personalise foreign policy authority and perform toughness through domineering masculinity, their interactions can reshape the normative structure of international politics itself. In this account, strongman-style leadership diffuses as a repertoire of legitimation and produces distinctive systemic outcomes, including messy allegiances and manhood-coded contests, in which status, honour, and reputation become central stakes. Integrating constructivist and feminist insights, my research examines how such orders emerge, proliferate, and ultimately become unstable through comparative historical and contemporary case studies, including European conflicts in the mid-19th century, early 20th-century crises preceding the First World War, and the current international system since 2025.
During 2024–25, I served as President of the Oxford University International Relations Society, hosting numerous speakers on British and US foreign policy, international relations theory, and Cold War history. I was also a fellow at the Oxford China Policy Lab, where I contributed to projects on contemporary US–China relations.
Research Interests
- International relations theory
- Foreign policy of the United States of America since 1917
- Foreign policy of the People's Republic of China since 1949
- Diplomatic history in Europe since the 19th century
- Diplomatic history in East Asia since the 19th century
Teaching
- 214: International Relations (core)
- 227: Politics and Government of China
- 212: International Relations of the Two World Wars
- 213: International Relations of the Cold War
Languages
- Chinese (native C2)
- English (near-native C2)
- French (advanced B2)
- Russian (beginner A1)
